Abstract：To investigate the relationship between intramuscular fat contents and the related genes, biceps femoris (BF), triceps brachii (TB) and longissimus dorsi (LD) muscles were obtained from naturally grazing Wuzhumuqin sheep, and gene expression related to intramuscular fat contents were measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The results showed that the expression patterns of the peroxisome proliferator activated receptors (PPARγ) and fatty acid synthase (FAS) genes were similar in the three skeletal muscles. The PPARγ gene was highly expressed at 1 and 12 months of age but lowly expressed at 9 and 18 months of age, whereas the FAS gene was highly expressed at 3 and 12 months of age and also lowly expressed at 9 and 18 months of age. The correlation analysis revealed that there was a negative correlation between intramuscular fat contents and the expression of the PPARγ and FAS genes in skeletal muscle.
